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over the first several miles. Also, find the "pacer" for the time that you approximate to stay behind that marker - amazingly enough, do not concern yourself overly with passing the pacer as the race continues as I did with the 5:00 runners - in the long run, the pace will work out as that runner passed me towards the end as I slowed a bit and we all finished within a few minutes of each other. Even before I seriously considered running a marathon, I always believed that once a strong, weight-lifting oriented athlete logged the miles to prepare for the run, physical body strength would be a great help over the course of such an endeavor. I absolutely found this to be true as I was able to handle uphill portions and continue at a steady pace throughout, far more so than lighter, but less physically prepared runners - encouraging for anyone looking to move from a weight-lifting indoor program to a "weight-lifting" outdoor program as running entails.

All things considered, the experience was tremendous and I would encourage all contemplating it to give it serious thought - the one part that I have not reconciled and expect to have the chance to do so is how runners train for these races while holding down a full-time job; my conclusion is that certain things become second nature and as in all things in life, if you want to do something, you can find time for it.

This article ran a bit long, but then again, it's a marathon, not a sprint.

I hope some of this helped, we'll see you out there, gotta run.....!

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